. Best launch for the Anson site is Porthleven Harbour, but it is possible
to get a boat and trailer closer to the bar by taking the A3083 from Helston
towards Culdrose Naval Air Station and, before going under the bridge which
links the two sides of the airfield, turning right along an unmade road.
This will bring you to the bar, where you can leave the trailer and carry
your boat across the beach. Be warned, though: it will be hard work.

Only a short distance from the Anson wreck lies the remains of the 300-ton
Portuguese carrack, San Antonio (St Anthony ).

She was wrecked on the way from Lisbon to Antwerp with a cargo which
included copper and silver ingots. We know where she was wrecked because her
commander did exactly the same as Captain Lydiard was to do centuries later
with the Anson. When his anchors snapped in the early morning of Saturday,
19 January, 1527, the Portuguese captain, Antonio Pacheco, sailed at the lee
shore, hoping to beach in the shingle. He aimed for the eastern end of Loe
Bar. He struck the same reef of rock unseen a 100m off the beach and his
ship broached to and was smashed to pieces. Forty-five of the crew survived.
There was much salvage at the time, but no record of the recovery of the
ingots. The wreck was believed for many years to be at Gunwalloe, because
some survivors were reported to have landed there.

The real wreck site was pinpointed after a copper ingot was found on the
beach in 1981. Then local diver Tony Randall, found a solid silver "melon"
weighing 8.6kg in the open on the reef! The wreck is now protected: diving
is not allowed within an area of 75m around 50 03 04; 05 17 01W.